Where the Trees Meet the Stream
by Vacant Green
Summary: Basically, its a post-plot Fanfiction for Spirited away. Will Chihiro be able to live a normal life after what has happened? Will she be able to see Kohaku again? Three years later and the answer to these questions still flutter around in her mind.
1. Intro

**Introduction.**

I was watching spirited away the night after I returned from Naka Kon, and I realized that, although the ending was satisfying, I wondered what would happen later. Would they be able to meet in the human world? And most importantly, would Chihiro be able to assume a normal life after all of this? I decided to write a fanfic about it, as from her perspective. It takes place 3 years later. This is my first in-context Fanfiction, so please don't be too harsh. I'm trying my best.


	2. 1

**Where the Trees Meet the Stream**

A Spirited Away Fanfic

1.

"Chihiro!" The voice calling my name was one that had done so just about everyday at this time for the past few years. I looked up from my text book and blinked at him. Toya Fumikazu was his name, and I was pretty sure at that time even that he liked me. He lived next door to my new house. I guess new isn't a good word, since I've lived there for about three years now. My Life seems to have been split into eras, I think, whenever I think about the past in this way. P.B. and A.B. Pre Bathhouse and After Bathhouse.

That experience changed me somehow, it made me more responsible, I guess…or something like that. That's what mom and dad say anyway (though they don't know what happened. They don't remember it.) They noticed the difference though, and I shrugged it off. I figure they'd think I went crazy if I told them anyway. There's no way they'd believe me.

But I know, even after all this time, that it's sitting out there. The gateway to that other world is lying undisturbed back in the forest beyond the abandoned amusement park entryway. His face appears to me in dreams and he talks to me. It's my imagination, I know…but it's still him. Kohaku…

"Chihiro…you're spacing out again." Kazu was standing at my desk now, bending over to look at my wandering eyes.

"I guess I am." I told him and stood up. Since we live right next to each other, we walk home together after school. I guess he's the best friend I've got here, though I have others of course.

In the sparse evening light, broken by the trees perched above us on the mountain slope, the world looked golden orange. Like one of those western paintings, or an old photograph. I thought it was pretty. The walk home was silent as usual, except for the general small talk that Kazu likes to indulge in. He's one of those guys who likes to talk a lot, just to hear himself talk. Or maybe it's to avoid the sound of silence. Regardless, he doesn't seem to get that I don't have much to talk about. Nothing interesting happens around here. The only amazing story I have to tell is locked away in the back of my mind. Kazu is probably one of the only people who'd believe me if I told him…but for some reason when ever I start…the words don't come. The barrier between this world and that one…can only be breached by eyes it seems.

Kazu was walking alongside his bike, looking straight ahead when he spoke what was on his mind. "Hey, Chihiro, listen…" He started, sounding awkward. We could see our houses, bathed in the lemon light of a drowning sun. "I want to know…every thing there is to know about you. But it's really hard when you won't hold a real conversation…" I looked at him over my books and gripped them harder. What was he getting at? I asked myself silently. "I mean you seem like a normal enough girl…But you space out a lot, doodle strange things in your notebooks…" I blushed a little. I had no idea his interest in me was that great. Was he watching me all class long? I suddenly felt a breach in my bubble…an encroachment on my territory and I had the impulse to run…but looking back at him I realized that…if nothing else…I could trust this red headed teen.

"Why are you so interested?" I asked, not wanting to find out what _other_ mannerisms he knew about. I figured I knew the answer…but he didn't have the guts to--

"Because I like you Chihiro…Isn't it obvious?" He looked across his bike at me, and as my cheeks reddened, I felt there was more air between us than I could possibly speak through. The air was too thick for our voices to be clearly understood. "You know what I mean right?"

I nodded and looked forward, not wanting to look at his now reddening face. My cheeks, cherry red, were pulsing with my stomach and I was compelled to keep my eyes on the road ahead of me.

"Well…? What is it you're always thinking about…?"

I thought for a moment…I could give him a small shard of the truth to placate him. I could tell him that it was a boy named Kohaku that I used to know…But I couldn't bring myself to let him down like that. I knew how it felt to wait for someone who wasn't going to come.

I had been thinking recently, why not just try to live a normal life? After all this time, Kohaku had probably forgotten me anyway…why was I holding out for him? What was the point? He wasn't even…human. Kazu was. Kazu was looking at me now; I could feel the wondering in his expression rather than see it. My eyes kept straying down the mountain to the woods beneath the terrace of buildings.

"I get it. You don't want to tell me. It's an old boyfriend isn't it?" I hated when people jumped to conclusions like that…but I also knew where he was coming from. He needed some kind of closure.

"No." Was the first thing that came out of my mouth, as I swiftly turned my head to him. "I mean…well…" Once again the words couldn't come. Any mention of Kohaku even, was like a swollen knot in my throat, getting caught whenever I tried to force it out.

I heard the sound of his bike chain clinking as he stopped walking. "Then why not give me a chance…?" Our houses were very close now…I could probably make it all the way running… "Why don't you go out with me?" My eyes widened, as you might expect…Even though I kind of knew it was coming, it didn't help my red cheeks to sober. I squinted back what might become tears. I couldn't bear to let such a friend down…but I also couldn't say yes. I couldn't break away from the chains binding me to that place.

I looked up into his eyes, searching for any sign of joking. It was obviously void of that, and I felt warm tears against my warm face. "I'm sorry…" I eeked out. "I can't…" The Face of the dragon haunted me; assailed me, but consoled me, and I couldn't forsake it.

I turned as I had wanted to, and ran towards the house at a dead sprint. "Chihiro, wait! I'm sorry!" I heard behind me, but I knew I wouldn't stop.

The first place I went was my room; and wailed into the pillow on my yellow/green-sheeted bed. The pictures surrounding the walls were of the Post Bathhouse era…friends and faces that seemed now like what you might find in a history book. A history who called every now and again to say hi. I reached to the back of my head and roughly pulled my hair out of the pony tail. In my hand I held a sparkly red band, woven by friends close but yet far away. It was my only reminder, aside from the little pink shoe that sat on the floor of my closet, that anything had happened out of the ordinary…that I'd spent days with strange people.

I held the band close to my chest and let myself cry. Cry because I couldn't see them again…and cry because I couldn't move on without them. I was trapped in a time loop…my mind doomed to stay where it could never belong. I had wanted to return home so badly…but what was there here but homework and useless conversations?

I stared up at the low ceiling of the blue house, and quietly wept.


	3. 2

2.

I woke up in a cold sweat, breathing hard and staring at the confused faces of my parents. Their concern dripped onto me with their incriminating words… "Who's Kohaku?" Mom asked, Sitting on the edge of my bed.

"I don't know." I lied.

They didn't give me much trouble beyond that. They wanted me to try to get back to sleep. Dad gave me one of those bad-dreams-don't-mean-anything talks, but to tell the truth, I couldn't remember what it was I'd been dreaming…But the fact that I had said Kohaku's name in my sleep was unnerving. I sighed as dad left, closed the door, and I got up to stare out of the window. The night had painted the trees below a silver blue, like the shimmering salty ocean. I leaned out of the window for a little bit until I decided I could go back to sleep.

When I tried to go back to sleep, however, my mind was wandering to Kohaku and to Kazu…to words I might say in the future to whichever one I might encounter. I knew full well that I'd have no guts to say things that would amount to anything at all, but at that time of night you might as well be sleep-thinking.

In the morning I was more than happy that Kazu was on his morning paper route. I still didn't know what to say to him, despite my night of turmoil. I looked over my shoulder at the blue house before starting toward school.

I tried not looking at him during class, because I had to concentrate on my work. I didn't want my grades to suffer because of silly emotions…but…I was fine letting Kohaku take as much of my mental capacity as he wanted to. Was that fair? Yeah, it was normal, I decided.

At lunch some of the girls who had heard about the incident from someone or other, asked me about it. It seemed everyone was on to me that there was another guy behind the curtain of my silence. I assured them that they'd be the first to know, and indeed they probably would believe me too, If I told them, but the words were no less reluctant than with Kazu or my parents. I made a silent decision then, that after school I would see it again. I would try to put it all behind me.

The orange sky seemed closer to the ground. I had snuck out right when school had ended so that I wouldn't have to deal with Kazu. He was probably cursing himself now for pushing me away, as I was cursing myself for doing the same. I gulped down my indecision and turned the opposite way than I would normally walk if I were going home. I paced slowly along the road, turning onto a now overgrown dirt road that curved into the forest. Familiar little wooden houses were piled in disarray along the road, clinging to trees and to one another with moss and age. Between breaks in the overgrowth I could see stone heads rising above the bushes, staring both across the road and back into the forest. I clutched my bag at my side, feeling a familiar apprehension. I hadn't been down this way for quite some time. I had only come down here once since I had gotten spirited away, and it had been an uneventful trip. I was too afraid back then to walk through the tunnel again. Now as I walked, it seemed a longer trek then when in a car. The sky was growing cloudy, adding a lighter hue to the orange-gold of the encroaching sky above. I pursed my lips as I looked around.

As time wore on, I began to hear a gurgling in the distance. Somewhere in the near distance there was a stream or small river running along. I watched the stalwart front line of shrubs and trees as though they might give me some insight into my life or the decisions I should make with it. I frowned and grabbed my arms against a chill wind. It made me think about how, back then, A gust of wind had beckoned me through the tunnel this time the wind seemed to be pulling me in a different direction, though. The trees and shrubs were defending against the wind's onslaught heroically, and I stopped in my tracks. Wind changes direction, doesn't it? I thought, it's not something I should worry about. But there was a promise in the suspense of it; there was a chance in that breeze that I didn't fully comprehend or understand. I stepped hugely over the first bush and into the darkened woods skeptically. The boughs formed heavy bars against the sky above, a haven from the stars that would soon be staring down at me. I kept my face straight ahead, not sure what it was I was doing. The wind flowed past me again, leaves brushed my legs and arms. I stepped ahead with that wind.

The sound of gurgling water became more and more prominent as I walked, brushing twigs from my path and kicking leaves. I was beginning to wonder what I was doing again. I was following something that wasn't possibly accountable…but then with what I had been through, how could I talk about normalcy?

I came at last along the edge of a crevice in the earth, sloped like a wedge into the ground. At the bottom of the small declivity there was definite water. The stream snaked across the rocks, making pretty designs against them. I followed the stream until the water level came up to meet mine. The steep sides sloped and ebbed until I could easily have stepped right into the water if I wanted to. I stopped and looked at the water again, realizing that I had come at length farther away from my destination than I had started at. I looked around quickly, whatever spell the stream had cast over me now dispersed. I wondered again what I could have been thinking in coming down here. Nothing, I decided. The stars were looking down on me incriminatingly, it seemed. My parents would be worried about me at this point. A disease that would no doubt have traveled to Kazu by this time. I was glad I hadn't told anybody what had happened. I didn't want anyone to find me.

I sat down and looked at the water, passing rhythmically over the thin rock bed. The stream was deep enough here that it might be up to my knees. It was clear enough for me to see the bottom, though. I reached in and cupped my hands, bringing a big gulp to my lips. It was then that I heard the voice. "I thought you'd forgotten about me…Chihiro…" I turned quickly at the familiar voice, His green hair still framed his face, though it was a little longer than it had been, and he was taller. Still taller than me. I jumped up excitedly.

"Kohaku!!!" I called and ran towards him. He was standing up the small bank close to the a tree that was closer than most to the stream. I embraced him roughly, and felt his hands on my back. "Kohaku…How could I ever forget about you? I thought you'd forgotten about _me_…"

"I can't leave this stream…my new home. I can't even take tangible form in your world except in the night." Kohaku said. His voice sounded a little deeper; a little older. I couldn't help smiling. I was so excited that his words didn't really register.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think you wanted me to come back towards the bathhouse." I replied, "I'm so happy to see you again…How are my friends? No Face, The baby…"

"They're all doing fine. They miss you. As I do." Kohaku gently pried me off of him and gripped my shoulders. "It has been awhile."

"Oh, I'd like to go see them, Kohaku…"

"You can't do that though. I can't let you get into that kind of trouble again Chihiro." He said firmly, shaking me slightly. I knew it was an impossibility. I breathed hard and looked over his face. It had all the same features I remembered it having. Only closer to my current age. I suppose it would be dumb to think he wouldn't age like I did. I couldn't tame my smile though.

"Oh Kohaku!" I planted my face in his chest and wept for joy. I couldn't help how happy I was to see him again after all that time.

He sighed as though he'd had something else he wanted to say, but couldn't find the words. I knew that feeling. He put his arms around me and I was happy.


End file.
